16 | National News BY NATION REPORTER The Parliamentary Education Committee is yet to be supplied with vital documents that could help clear doubts about the schools laptops. Committee chairperson Sabina Chege (right) said they were asking the Ministry of Education to furnish them with the documents to ascertain if proper procedure was followed to award Olive telecommunications the contract. “The ministry is unwilling to table the documents we are asking for,” she said. Ms Chege spoke at Kanamker Primary School in Turkana County during the launch of nomadic child friendly schools and water and hygiene in arid and semi-arid counties. The project is funded by UK’s Department for International Development and implemented by Unicef. Ms Chege, however, said the com- mittee was not opposed to the laptops for Standard One pupils. She explained that the committee did not want schools supplied with sub-standard gadgets at taxpayers’ expense. The 1.2 million laptops will cost Sh24.6 billion in addition to printers and projectors. “The committee has not even seen a sample of the laptops. The Ministry of Education officials told us that it had been taken to the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development for installation of content,” she said. The committee plans to travel DAILY NATION Thursday February 20, 2014 Education committee seeks documents on schools laptops to India next week to determine if the company can deliver quality laptops. Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi has maintained that the process was above board. Prof Kaimenyi also made it clear that plans to acquire the first 400,000 laptops in April, this year, would go on as planned. Haier and Hewlett-Packard firms, which lost the tender, have appealed against the decision to award the contract to the Indian firm. HOUSE | Agencies ‘to deal with counties’ Watchdogs to get more cash in mini-budget MPs warned against spending committee money on foreign trips which do not add value to work BY JOHN NGIRACHU @JohnNgirachu jngirachu@ke.nationmedia.com MPs allocate extra cash needed for the rest of the financial year, the Budget Committee has said. The Budget and Appropria- P tions Committee chairman Mutava Musyimi told MPs yesterday that the Parliamentary Service Commission, the Office of the Auditor General, the Controller of Budget and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission would get special consideration. Rev Musyimi described the three government agencies as “the people who will help us deal with the problem in the counties, because there is a problem.” Committee complaints The chairman was reacting to complaints from MPs who lamented that their committee work has been constrained by a shortage of funds. This was a day after the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) told the committee it needs an additional Sh7.8 billion to finance Parliament’s activities for the rest of the financial year. PSC had asked for Sh24.5 billion for this financial year, but was given Sh19 billion. “We were very keen not to be seen as if we are favouring ourselves when we were approving the estimates for 2012/2013 and so there is actually a deficit,” said Rev Musyimi. Of the additional Sh7.8 arliament and government watchdogs will be given the priority when Sh7.8bn Amount the Parliamentary Service Commission is seeking ‘‘ I have seen committtees that have approved...travel for nothing related to your work,” National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi billion the PSC is asking for, Sh850 million is intended for National Assembly committees. Treasury has proposed to give the PSC Sh1 billion in the mini-budget. EACC is getting an additional Sh200 million, the Auditor General Sh380 million and the Controller of Budget Sh25.7 million in the Supplementary Budget. Speaker Justin Muturi however noted that committees have been spending their allocations unwisely. “I have seen committees that have approved…er… you know what you have approved for your members…to travel, I don’t know to do what. Nothing related to the work of your committees,” said Mr Muturi. Suba MP John Mbadi, con- sidered the in-house expert on public finance management, advised his colleagues to have in mind the need for austerity as they agitate for more allocations. Rev Musyimi asked the Departmental Committees to try and save some money by taking from departments and ministries they oversee.